pastern/ˈpæstən/EtymologyFrom Middle English pastron, pastroun, pasturne, from Old French pasturon, diminutive of pasture (“shackle for a horse in pasture”), alteration of Late Latin pastōria after the suffix -ure.nounThe part of a horse's leg between the fetlock joint and the hoof.“It was quite impossible to ride over the deeply-ploughed field; the earth bore only where there was still a little ice, in the thawed furrows the horse's legs sank in above its pasterns.”A shackle for horses while pasturing.A patten.“Upright he walks, on pasterns firm and straight; His motions easy; prancing in his gait So straight she walk'd, and on her pasterns high.”